A youth group is seeking the resignation of National Youth Commission (NYC) chair Ryan Enriquez over a Commission on Audit (COA) report showing the excessive spending of the agency in 2019.

COA released an annual audit report on August 24 that revealed the NYC had overspent on its expenses for training, seminar, and food last year.

State auditors flagged NYC for its huge expenses of P34.98 million on training programs held in five-star hotels and P171,500 or P3,430 each for the Filipiniana costumes of its participants at a cultural exchange program.

Akbayan Youth criticized the agency’s excessive expenses as an “outrageous contrast” to  the doubling of the unemployment rate among the country’s youth last year.

“The NYC headed by Ryan Enriquez spoiled themselves with funds meant for youth development while millions of young people are living in poverty,” Akbayan Youth chair Dr. RJ Naguit said.

Naguit noted COA’s other finding that NYC had missed performance targets particularly with regard to its anti-drugs campaign despite having spent most of its budget.

He was referring to the four out of the 12 projected activities completed by NYC for its Fit Filipino Youth Against Drugs (FYAD) initiative.

“This is laughable as an agency that obsessed so much about the President's war on drugs. The NYC's hopeless incompetence waste(s) so much of government funds for the youth,” he said.

The group pressed the need to overhaul the agency by removing Enriquez, and a member of the commission, Ronald Cardema, from their posts.

Cardema just returned to the NYC after he was appointed anew as commissioner following his failed bid in the 2019 elections when he ran as a Duterte Youth party-list representative.

“This excessive spending is symptomatic of a rotten system within the NYC where programs aren't geared towards the development of young people but only towards pleasing President Duterte,” Naguit said.